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Biral's visibility sensors improve road safety in Dubai Municipality

 


Dubai towers in fogDubai at nightDubai skyline in sandstorm

Camels on Dubai beach
 
       		  
Typically from June to September the climate in Dubai is hot and humid with intermittent sandstorms. From November to March the weather is cooler with intermittent dense fog.  A rough guide as to the average number of days per year which might be affected by visibility are shown below:
  • fog = 30 days
  • precipitation = 28 days
  • blowing dust / sand = 111 days
  • smoke / haze = 90 days
 .
 

            
The Burj Khalifa shrouded in fog

The tops of Dubai's sky scrapers
are visibile above the fog.

(The Burj Khalifa - far centre - is the
tallest man-made structure in the
world at 828 m (2,717 ft ... over half a
mile). 

Fog and meteorological station in Dubai Municipality

One of the fog and meteorological
stations in Dubai Municipality


The SWS-100 visibility and present weather sensor on the fog and met station

The SWS-100 visibility and present
weather sensor on the weather station above
           

Biral’s Visibility Sensors Improve Road Safety in Dubai.


Due to a serious road accident in Dubai (March 2008), in which more than 200 cars crashed, Dubai Municipality decided to purchase and install a road fog early warning and forecasting system. MicroStep-MIS won the tender, and with a local partner installed a new road system for Dubai Municipality. The system was installed in 2009 and has now been in successful operation for over a year.

The complete system solution consists of eight new meteorological stations, five integrated onshore meteorological stations, one marine buoy and a new central data collection point, database and data presentation system, with a local area weather forecasting models.

The main purpose of the systems is an early warning and forecasting of fog (visibility) in Dubai. Visibility is the main measured and forecasted parameter, an accurate and reliable measurement of visibility is crucial for both early warning and calibration of forecasting models.


“MicroStep-MIS decided to use Biral’s SWS100, in spite of the fact that at the time of the tender it was a quite new product; we had excellent, long term experience with the HSS series of sensors, so we expected the SWS100 would be of similar quality. After more than one year of operation we can confirm that our expectations were fulfilled. We haven’t had any problems with the installed visibility sensors.

” Ing. Jozef Omelka – Managing Director, Microstep-MIS


Data from the meteorological stations is collected in a real time, with a data collection interval of two minutes. Meteorological stations are powered by solar panels and batteries only. In order to save as much energy as possible, visibility sensors are switched on only for the minimal necessary time within the two minutes. In this way, approximately 40% of energy is saved when powering the visibility sensors. Experience shows that the SWS100 works well in this “switch off/on” mode.

The excellent performance of the road system and reduction in serious accidents has meant that Dubai Municipality intends to extend the system this year, new stations will therefore be added. Forecasting models will be extended, by forecasting additional weather phenomena utilizing the SWS200 and a rain gauge for accurate visibility and present weather data.

For additional information please contact Rachel Billington at Biral or

MicroStep Logo

Jozef Omelka
MicroStep-MIS,
Cavojskeho 1,
SK-84104 Bratislava,
Slovakia

Tel: +421 2 60200 118, +421 2 60200 111 Fax: +421 2 60200 180

omelka@microstep-mis.com
www.microstep-mis.com


.... link to Biral Visibility and Present Weather Sensors /meteorological-sensors/visibility-and-present-weather













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